Hub 4 wifi coverage

[Neil2021]

So I'm totally new to virgin and i'm getting gig1 installed on the 12th March and I'm just wondering how good the wifi coverage of the hub 4 is, I've watched a few reviews but not much is mentioned about the actual wifi coverage

I live in a 3 storey new build house and with me the wife and 4 kids and the massive amount of wifi devices we have plus all my smart home tech, just wondering how the hub is going to cope with all my devices

I was currently using bt whole home and had 3 discs on each floor, only had one downstairs as the ring doorbell which is outside wasn't really getting a strong signal but this setup has provided really strong wifi around the whole house

So wondering how the hub 4 will cope with saying reaching the top floor on it's own, it's not a massive house or anything but i'm already thinking about will I need wifi boosters or thinking of getting a wifi mesh system, seen a post actually about using the bt whole home wifi with a virgin hub?

So should I already start thinking about getting wifi extenders from virgin after my  install or maybe getting a mesh system like tp link deco or orbi, my site visit engineer said they don't carry the wifi extenders on them anymore so I know I won't get one on my install date

Thank in advance

[Neil2021]

Oh yeah, so I could just star out with one actually, does one unit need to be connected to the virgin hub by cable though 

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

Yes - if you are using modem mode - which is the best way to connect a good Mesh sysem

[Neil2021]

Thought so, maybe I'd need 2 then and put one on the second floor for upstairs, sorry if this is a daft question, csn you still use the ethernet ports on the back of the virgin hub when it's in modem mode 

[gary_dexter · Accepted solution]

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@Neil2021 wrote:

Thought so, maybe I'd need 2 then and put one on the second floor for upstairs, sorry if this is a daft question, csn you still use the ethernet ports on the back of the virgin hub when it's in modem mode 

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No. Only one will work which needs the mesh connection made to it 

[Neil2021]

Ahh I thought you would connect one to the router and then you could put another one in another room or another floor, making it a mesh system, how well would it work if you just connect one to the hub 

[gary_dexter]

You need to connect the primary node to the hub.

The other nodes connect back wirelessly to the primary node or you can connect them by Ethernet to backhaul them.

[Neil2021]

Ahh sorry I thought you meant I could only connect one and that's it 😁

[gary_dexter]

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@Neil2021 wrote:

Ahh sorry I thought you meant I could only connect one and that's it 😁

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No no. The others link back to the main one 

[Neil2021]

Sorry if I'm sounding daft, I am pretty tech savvy but I barely know anything about networking 😁how would you connect the other nodes by ethernet, would it be connecting them directly to each other or using summat like powerline adaptors and what does it mean to backhaul 😁

[gary_dexter · Accepted solution]

So usually the mesh disks all connect back to the primary node (and to each other) wirelessly.

However some mesh systems allow you to use Ethernet cables to “backhaul” them back to the primary node.

This prevents any drops in speed that would naturally occur with Wifi and forms a more “stable” connection between the nodes.

See here as an example on how some TP-Link mesh system utilise this: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1794/